A new study showed that, unlike the traditional parboiling method, husking rice prior to parboiling significantly removes inorganic arsenic content by 25% while increases its calcium content. Parboiling husked whole grain allows inorganic arsenic to escape during the process while parboiling unhusked rice transfers the high levels of arsenic in the husk to the grain, according to the researchers from Bangladesh and Northern Ireland
Rice absorbs arsenic from soil and groundwater and is a problem in Bangladesh where groundwater pumped from shallow aquifers for irrigation adds an estimated one million kilograms of arsenic annually to the soil.
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